Jaime Fuller

Recent Articles

Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Janet Yellen as Ben Bernanke's replacement as the head of the Federal Reserve, with a vote of 56-25 —a lackluster show of support that beat Bernanke's former distinction as the most-opposed Fed chair in history. The vote could have been even closer if not for the Polar Vortex. Yellen's predecessor gave her some job advice in a press conference last month: “Congress is our boss," which translates roughly to "Have fun storming the castle." She is the first woman to head the 100-year-old institution, and she definitely isn't inheriting the healthiest of economies. Unemployment is high , the government keeps cutting spending, preventing a much needed infusion of cash from hitting the economy, and the Federal Reserve has to figure out when the wisest time is to change up the emergency measures first pursued when the recession hit ... or perhaps have, as some fear, our fragile budding growth combust in their hands. Dealing with quantative easing definitely...

Dark money may have been outed as not the most fool-proof weapon to have in your arsenal during the 2012 presidential elections, but let's not forget—the smaller the election, the greater the impact of a big money drop. Which is why midterms are a donor's best friend. Recall, if you will, 2010 . As our own Bob Moser noted last January, "In 2010, when more outside money was spent in the states than ever before, state senate candidates raised an average of just $132,000; assembly candidates averaged $66,000. Throw a hundred thousand into a state legislative race, and you can blow it up with drone-like precision." Which is exactly what Art Pope and many other donors did. And with some of the groups, like the network of fundraising organizations affiliated with the Koch brothers, which raised at least $407 million in the 2012 election cycle, you can't even tell who's doing the donating. This network's plan for 2014? According to David Koch, they're "going to study what worked, what didn’t...

Today, the Washington Blade announced that Clay Aiken is interested in running for North Carolina's 2nd congressional seat. Yes, that Clay Aiken , the one who lost the election that likely features the highest turnout in the country, American Idol . Now that it is finally 2014, we expect similar candidates with ... unique qualifications ... will start coming out of the woodwork with their primary paperwork. Not that we've been exactly starving for entertainment thus far. The frontrunner for least consequential yet most news guzzling candidate of the year obviously goes to Steve Stockman, who ended 2013 on a high note . If you don't count his many problems with the FEC , that is. If Texas's thirst for weak if well-GIFed tea proves less than resounding and Stockman loses, Texas Monthly 's beautiful fever dream of a reality show — co-starring Louie Gohmert—seems like a promising alternative. Then, there is Allan Levene, who is running for a handful of seats in Georgia. Multiple...

expert : “An ‘expert,’ judging not by dictionary definitions but by common usage, is a young man who is hired by a newspaper to make prophecies which are never fulfilled and to express opinions which are ultimately proved to have been all wrong.” It's hard to flip through a newspaper without seeing the assembled attitudes of the world's many experts ( defined by Urban Dictionary as "someone with a blog or a dude with an opinion"). Each reporter has their go-to legal expert, their reliable election expert, their immigration and education experts, who can be called upon when a story gets just too chewy to tackle alone. A cursory examination of today's print editions reveals the opinions of environmental and health experts , climate experts , medical experts , earthquake experts , and Matthew McConaughey (expert-in-training). The sheer magnitude of experts referenced regularly seems to hint at a bit of expert inflation (we blame millennials), but sometimes an expert quoted in an article...

Now that 2013 is finally done we can wash away the retrospectives and gifs and listicles of yesteryear and focus on what's bound to happen next. First off, we have to deal with the political hangovers from the last few weeks. Congress will need to decide whether it wants to renew the emergency unemployment benefits program . If they don't our economy could suffer a major setback (and, who are we kidding, it's not too stable as it is.) And then there is Obamacare. We're still going to be talking about health care a lot in 2014—Jonathan Cohn has some things we should keep in mind amid the grumbling and defending. Governing Magazine has a useful list of the big legislative issues that will probably dominate real estate on legislative dockets across the country. Also big policy-wise—there are the upcoming decisions set to be announced by the Supreme Court . There are also a few cliffhangers waiting to be resolved in other federal courts. Pretty soon, however, the newsmakers and those who...